3,000 manholes to be sealed to stop illegal dumping inside Malta’s sewers
Published on by Water Network Research, Official research team of The Water Network in Government
Illegal waste like cow’s carcasses and pigs’ heads gets dumped inside Malta’s sewers: 3,000 manholes around the island will have to be sealed shut to stop the abusive practice
A cow’s carcass, pigs’ heads, ‘fatbergs’ of congealed oil discharge, dozens of Sea Bass bred in unlicensed aquaculture operations... all of these have been illegally dumped inside Maltese sewers.
But the damage such illegal waste is causing to the island’s sewage treatment plants, is about to force through a drastic plan: sealing off 3,000 manholes around the island.
It will be the only way to prevent the industrial and agricultural waste from entering the sewers, something that inevitably leads to the shutdown of the sewage treatment plants.
And it has already been carried out in Gozo, where manholes used for illegal disposal of animal waste were sealed shut, to prevent the €16 million treatment plant there from being brought to a halt.
Sewage treatment plants are now producing second-class, or ‘new’ water: an ultra-filtrated water from domestic sewage that gets used for agricultural irrigation.
New water has given Maltese farmers a stable supply of low salinity water – unlike groundwater reserves – and has even improved crops by giving them better shelf life. Some farmers have reported getting two crops a year because new water does not have any negative impact on the fertility of the soil.
“Unfortunately, the illegal waste being dumped in the sewers instantly brings to a stop the treatment plants. Once the system detects all those nitrates in the sewage, the plant shuts down. And this means that domestic sewage has to be bypassed and dumped out at sea until the plant is put back into operation,” a government source said.
SOURCE TO ARTICLE ABOUT SEALED MANHOLE COVES IN MALTA DUE TO ILLEGAL DUMPING
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